More Than a Membership: Create Belonging Through Sound Brand Strategy

This post is based on a recent seminar I attended a couple of months ago in Washington, DC.

The following are my notes based on the conversation led by Jennie Winton of Mission Minded.

What is your Brand?  Your logo (visual identity) is not your brand nor are the programs you produce are your brand.  Your brand is your reputation.  It’s what people think about you when they see your name.

Benefits of a Strong Brand – it creates a relationship with your key stakeholders.  It also minimizes competitive threats.  In other words, they think of you first instead of your competition.

She went on to talk about how it can defend you against negative news.  A strong brand will make it easier for your sales team to bring on new members and retain the ones you have.  A strong brand is built on benefits not features (we generally talk about our “features” not the “benefits,” something that might solve their problems.

I’ve talked about that in a past post that can be found HERE.

Here are Jennie's 6 Steps to Rebranding:

1. Assess the brand you have now – survey your members and non-members to find out what your known for or not known for.  Look for patterns.

2. Identify your audience – those that are most likely to join.  That’s another way of saying you can’t be all things to all people.  Who are our core members that allow us to fulfill our mission?

3. Examine the competition – I’ve said this before, look to the next town or community and that chamber is your competition.  What makes you different?  Create a brand that differentiates you from the competition.

4. Find the open opportunity – how are you different?  What are we offering to our members that they can’t get elsewhere?  Do they feel good by joining your organization?

5. Distill that difference into its purest essence, your brand positioning – think Volvo/Safety, Apple/Innovation, Nike/Celebrate Athletes and Athletics.

6. Intentionally begin to send signals that reinforce the band you want to have – what we do, how we sound, how we look, and how we act.

She ended with “Brand is everyone’s responsibility.”

For more information on branding from One Marketing Limited go HERE.

A great resource on How To Craft Your Belief Message can be found HERE by Mission Minded.

Rebranding Your Organization

I recently attended an educational session on rebranding your organization and wrote this post on from my notes.

Expectations vs Reality!

Change is hard and most people don't like it.  Who should you involve in getting from A to B?

Do you use an outside group to help in the transition?  Most will tell you this is key!  Get outside expertise to get the ball rolling.

First step is to acknowledge that you need to change:

• Buy-in first from the CEO and then rally the troops - staff and volunteers
• Everyone needs to be on the same page
• Remember, rebranding is not about changing your logo

Brand = Reputation

Define what you want with this rebrand?  Create and align all your program of work that you want to do (hint, get rid of the sacred cows)

Three phases of the launch: 1) Preparation; 2) Internal launch; and 3) external launch.

Plan on at least 12 months, set your strategy and then tell the story - where we were, where we are, where we're going.

• Culture vs behavior:  Create a culture that will change the behavior.
• Make the change matter - tell them why we're changing.
• Stand your ground when the naysayers show up.

You've based your decisions on data (survey work with your members).  Tell the story that they were involved with from the beginning.

Three types of groups you'll encounter:

1. They love it (small)
2. I don't know how I feel (most will come around)
3. They hate it and have already made up their mind (not that many but can be loud).  And by the way, some may find their way out!  That's ok.  Focus on the new, not the old.

Measure and do better as you go through this process.

• Who moved my cheese book - let them move their own cheese!
• Use the Horizon Initiative: Chambers 2025 report to help with the discussion on what you want to be.  I'm a fan of the "fund the mission" not events.  I've said it before about getting out of the ribbon cutting business, get into the advocacy business.

You'll find that you'll have more time to focus on moving your chamber forward instead of chasing the next event.

Think about your monthly Board Meeting!  Wouldn't you like to get those down to a quarterly basis?  That way you can focus on getting real stuff done vs writing the minutes and then turning right around to create the next months Board agenda.

It's a never-ending cycle!

In addition, how many times do we complain that we can't get our board members to attend the monthly meeting?

Maybe you'll get better attendance if you move it to a quarterly basis!

Just Say No!

Easier said than done!

Agreed, but you need to find a way to say no or your chamber will try and be all things to all people.

We can’t be all things to all people. Let me repeat that, we can’t be all things to all people.

Successful chambers figured that out a long time ago. Decide what kind of chamber you want to be and live it every day.

Read previous post HERE on the Hedgehog Theory from Jim Collin’s book, Good to Great. Through your strategic planning process you should have the road map to success.

Are you an advocacy chamber, economic development chamber or a networking chamber?

I’d suggest you should be known for one and live that brand. I’m not suggesting which you should be, just the fact that you should focus on one of them as your brand.

Your brand on the street should be:

• The chamber that advocates;
• The chamber that brings jobs to the community; or
• The chamber where you can network for business opportunities.

I’ll grant you that you may be doing all three, but pick one to plant your stake in the ground.

That’s your marker. That’s your brand!

What's Your Brand?

That is the $64K question.

Has your brand changed over the years?

Building a brand is important, it’s built over time, and you need to review your brand every five to ten years if you want to stay relevant.

Which leads me to my next question.

As I visit with the chamber community across the country, I’m always asked the following four questions.

1. Are Chamber’s of Commerce Relevant?
2. Are some more relevant than others?
3. Are all your members important?
4. Are some more important than others?

As you might have guessed, the answer is yes to all four. But, let’s not fool ourselves, some chambers are more relevant than others, and some members are more important than others.

Based on the Winston Group study, a question was asked – “What makes chambers relevant?” The top 4 answers:

1. Networking opportunities (41%)
2. Economic/community development (37%)
3. Issue advocacy/lobbying (16%)
4. Tourism/Community promotion (15%)

That being said, I’m quick to point out a conversation I had with a chamber CEO last year who stated, “If you’ve met one chamber, you’ve met one chamber,” which leads me to my next question.

What is your Chambers Value Proposition?

You’ve seen the equation: Benefits – Costs = Value.

What is your Chamber’s Golden Handcuff? What do you provide that every member wants to be a part of. That’s your golden handcuff, and that’s a question only you can answer.

I’m reminded of two books I’ve read and wanted to share two concepts that I keep “top of mind.”

The first, is by Jim Collins. The book is Good to Great, and it talks about how organizations make the leap. Mr. Collins refers to a concept called the “Hedgehog Theory.” And, in a nutshell, it’s a business model for lines of business. Think of three circles:

1. What do you do better than anybody else?;
2. What do you have passion for?; and
3. What do you make money at?

The book suggests to focus on where the three meet.

The second book, Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain. Mr. Bourdain was the executive chef at Les Halles in New York.

He talks about why people go back to the same restaurant year, after year, after year for the same meal. I’m guilty. I went to Café Dalat, in Arlington, VA, for 15 years, and I order the same thing every time (without exception).

I’m so guilty, I go cross country to California and order the same meal at Lares, a Mexican restaurant, every year – that little tradition has been going on for 20 years.

Mr. Bourdain states that people order the same meal, from the same restaurant, because they know the quality of the meal will be the same every time.

I suggest the message to chamber leaders (volunteer and staff), is too never forget why your members join.

Your members will want you to innovate, push the envelope, create new products and services, but at the same time, you need to deliver the core goods that your members expect from your chamber.

As you look towards the future: show the value; communicate, communicate, communicate your brand; build partnerships/alliances; and never take a member for granted.